Real shops. Not another chain.

CLocal is built by Kathryn Donnelly, part of the ClickClick group, based in Belfast.

I built ClickClick around a simple idea: independent businesses deserve the same real marketing tools the big chains already have, not a cut-down version of them. CLocal is that idea applied to local discovery. Every big directory app ends up full of chains because chains can afford to buy their way to the top. CLocal only works the other way around: a shop pays nothing to be listed, and I only get paid when a real shopper actually walks in and redeems a deal. That keeps the incentive pointed at real footfall for real independent shops, not ad spend.

Big chains already have marketing budgets, loyalty apps, and ad spend behind them. The independent café, salon, and shop down your street usually doesn’t, even though it’s the one that actually makes a place feel like itself. CLocal only lists real independent businesses. That’s not a marketing line, it’s a rule built into how the app works.

Belfast is home. It’s where I’m building this from, where I know the independent scene street by street, and where I can actually walk into a shop and ask an owner what they need instead of guessing. Launching properly in one real city beats spreading thin across many. Belfast is that city, and where CLocal goes next depends on getting it right here first.

A local shop posts a real, timed offer, live now, redeemed in person at the till. No codes to fake, no subscription to cancel, nothing pre-paid. CLocal only gets paid when a shopper actually walks in and redeems it, so the incentive is always to send real people through a real door, not to sell ad space.